Colorless
by weirdsib
Summary: There's nothing to fear but fear itself. For toons, this is literal, and the Warners are about to find that out the hard way.
1. Prologue

**A/N: My first fanfic! Yay! Anyways, I'm not that great at writing, but hey, I try. Please review and feel free to throw some tips out there. I accept criticism with open arms, especially if it helps me become a better writer. Oh yeah, I don't own Animaniacs, so don't sue me. Enjoy.**

Prologue

_This is my fault. I let this happen._

Yakko silently sobbed as the same thought kept running through his mind. The thought that he could've prevented this from happening, but he didn't. Now he was going to lose one of the things he loved most.

_If I would've payed attention, if I would've been the older brother that I was supposed to be..._

Yakko pulled his younger sibling closer to him on the hospital bed. He had thought that everything was going to be ok. He had thought that things would work out like they always do. He and his siblings were always able to get out of a jam relatively easily, but not this time. Yakko tightly pulled his eyes shut as he felt more warm tears dampen his fur.

_Now it's too late. _

**Well, there's the prologue. Yes, I know, it's short. Forgive me. The chapters will hopefully be much longer. Anyways, please R&R, even if it is short.**


	2. Chapter 1 Crazy Science

**Yay! Chapter one! Please bare with me people. I want to thank Animanizanny for supporting me and being my first reviewer. Oh, just so you all know, this is mostly told through Yakko's eyes, even though it's still third person point of view. In later chapters it'll be told through the eyes of other characters.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Animaniacs. **

Chapter 1: Crazy Science

Yakko, bored out of his mind, continued to flip through the T.V. channels. Wakko plopped down on the spot next to him, a bowl of popcorn in his hands. Dot got comfy on the other side.

"The one time we get a day off, and there's nothing to watch," Dot muttered.

Yakko just sighed and continued to flip through the channels.

"We could always watch that one crazy guy on the science channel," Wakko suggested.

Yakko shrugged his shoulders.

"I guess I could use a laugh. The only man that makes science seem like a joke," Yakko said as he flipped to the channel.

"Is he wearing a lab coat?" Dot asked, holding in her giggles as the scientist stepped to the podium.

"How can all these people take him seriously?" Wakko asked.

"He's surrounded by people just like him, crazy and obsessed. The lab coat, to them, makes him look more professional," Yakko explained.

"Whatever." Dot sighed. "Let's just watch it. There's nothing better to do."

"_Now Mr. John Tamson will speak to us about his recent studies in the toon species and how he plans to extend our knowledge in it,"_

"I know how they can extend their knowledge, ask!" Dot huffed and crossed her arms. "Honestly, if they want to learn more about us, they should just ask."

"Even if they did ask and we did tell them about ourselves, what would they do with all that information?" Yakko asked.

"It's just a scientist thing," Wakko said as he stuffed his face.

On screen, Mr. Tamson, a tall man with unbrushed brown hair and dark green eyes, began to speak into the microphone.

"_Thank you Jim. I'm very anxious to talk to you all about my ideas in the study of the toon species. Now, according to my research, toons are very different than humans when it comes to fear."_

"Yes, while only _most _humans are afraid of you, _all _toons are afraid of you," Yakko said to the T.V.

"Toons can't stand him. There's not one toon in his audience," Wakko mentioned.

"_Of course, what I read was not very accurate, and I didn't read much, but I have thought of a way to expand my research."_

"This oughts be good," Dot said sarcastically.

"_If I could work with actual toons, I might be able to unlock the truth about toons and their relationship with fear."_

"_What are you proposing Mr. Tamson?"_

Tamson grinned and looked out to the crowd.

"_If I could run various tests on toons, I might be able to break new grounds in the study of the toon species."_

Yakko nearly fell off the couch.

_Is he serious? This guy really needs to get a life._

On screen, faint whispers were heard throughout the audience. Dot just shook her head in disappointment.

"I can't believe there's actually people like that. Did he hit his head as a child or something?"

"Well my sister sibling, here's what I think. He's probably a social outcast who still lives with his mother and needs an outlet for all his bottled up feelings."

"And that outlet being doing cruel tests on innocent toons to find out useless information that won't benefit our civilization in any way possible?"

"Pretty much. What do you think Wakko?" Yakko asked, looking over to his brother.

Wakko set his popcorn down on the table next to him and looked over at his siblings.

"I think he's flipped his lid." Yakko and Dot nodded in agreement.

"I guess that's a good way of putting it," Yakko replied. Dot hopped off the couch and stretched her arms out.

"I'm going walking around the lot. You guys wanna come?"

Yakko and Wakko both nodded, anxious to get out of their humid little tower.

"It beats watching a mad man talk on public television," Yakko said.

"Let's go!" called Wakko, already halfway down the ladder.

Dot hurried down after him with Yakko following close behind. When they reached the bottom, Yakko ran over to his siblings.

"What should we do?" asked Wakko.

"Why are you asking us? You were the one in such a hurry to get out of the tower," said Dot.

"You were the one who wanted to leave the tower in the first place!" snapped Wakko.

Yakko just shook his head and sighed.

_They're at it again._

Yakko watched them, debating on whether to break them up or let them fight it out. Their arguments were unpredictable though. It could go from who gets the T.V. to how the world will end in a madder of seconds. They usually didn't last long though, so Yakko just decided to watch in amusement until the argument dies down.

"You're always blaming me for everything!" Dot yelled.

"I wouldn't have to blame you if it wasn't your fault!"

_This isn't dying down. Looks like I'll have to intervene._

"Alright guys, break it up. Let's go bother someone. That's always fun and seems to kill a few minutes of boredom."

"Fine," both siblings said in unison.

As they walked around the lot in search for someone to mess with, the tension between the two younger children dies off and they were talking as if nothing ever happened.

_Those are my siblings, unpredictable and crazy, but still forgiving and somewhat normal... sometimes. _

Yakko was suddenly snapped out of his thoughts when he heard part of a conversation from two toon people at a nearby hotdog stand. The people, a man and a woman, were walking away from it when Yakko heard what they were saying.

"Can you believe that guy!" said the woman in an annoyed voice. "I certainly hope not all humans are like that."

"You know they're not," replied the man in a much calmer tone. "Though there are many cruel humans, there are even more that are kind. Besides, toons can be cruel too."

The woman's shoulders dropped and she sighed.

"I know, but no toon would even think about doing tests on a human, so why should a human want to do tests on a toons."

Yakko immediately knew what they were talking about.

"He's just a nut, that's all. Just don't worry about it. They'll never let him do something like that," said the man in a soothing tone."

Yakko watched them walk away.

_Looks like we're not the only ones who thinks Tamson is crazy._

"Yakko? Are you coming or what?" Yakko turned to see Dot giving him an impatient look.

"I was just eavesdropping on someone else's conversation," Yakko said, smiling at her.

"What was it about?" Wakko asked, now interested.

"The crazy nutjob. Turns out we're not the only ones that think he's crazy either."

"Hey Yakko?" Dot said, tapping her brother's shoulder.

"Yeah sis?"

"You don't think...", she hesitated for a moment. "You don't think they'll let him do what he wants to do, do you? Testing toons, I mean?"

"I was wondering that too," Wakko said.

"Don't worry sibs, they don't just let people grab toons off the street and do pointless tests on them."

"What if they did?" Wakko asked, tongue hanging out of his mouth.

"Then we'd be screwed," Yakko explained.

"Yakko! Language!" Dot playfully hit him on the arm as she laughed.

"What? I don't see any censors around! Anyways. Let's go get something to eat. It'll take up a couple minutes of our time at least."

"I'm starving," Wakko muttered.

"You're always starving," Dot said as they headed to the nearby hotdog stand.

"That's my bottomless sib," said Yakko proudly.

They all sat down to eat, smiles on their faces, not a care in the world.

Soon, that would all change.


	3. Chapter 2 Gone

**Alright! All the way to chapter 2! I'm on a roll!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Animaniacs.**

Chapter 2: Gone

A month went by as the Warners went on with their somewhat normal lives. Everything was going great, until one day.

Yakko sat up in bed and stretched his arms. He glanced at the clock. 4:00 am.

_Do I ever get a break?_

Yakko hopped out of bed and got dressed in some jeans and a green T-shirt, only knowing he'd have to change into those long brown slacks in an hour for shooting. He went to Wakko's room to wake him up.

He usually woke up Wakko when he got up so he'd have someone to talk to in the morning. He'd tried waking Dot before, but all that got him was a whack from a mallet. He shuddered at the memory. When he reached Wakko's room though, all he found was an empty bed.

_Looks like he's already up. Probably in the kitchen eating the fridge... and maybe the food too._

When Yakko reached the kitchen, however, Wakko wasn't eating any food. Wakko was reading the newspaper with a pained look on his face.

"Wakko?"

Wakko didn't answer as he continued to stare as the paper in his hands.

"Earth to Wakko."

Wakko shook his head and looked up at his brother, his eyes filled with fear and sadness.

"Yakko... he's gone." Yakko gave him a confused look.

"What?"

Without warning, Wakko shoved the paper in Yakko's direction. Yakko skimmed over the paper until he found what was making Wakko act so strange. When he found it, his heart sank.

_Rabbits Feet aren't so lucky. Buster Bunny, star of Tiny Toons Adventures, has gone missing! For already three weeks now, Buster Bunny has been missing and still no clues were found. Friends and family have informed us that Buster is not the kind to run away. If this is so, where is he? _

Yakko didn't even bother to read the rest.

"I thought he was just on vacation or something," Wakko whispered to himself. "I didn't know that he was..."

Yakko pulled Wakko into a hug. They were close friends with Buster, mostly because he was the star of their sister show. They would always see him and the other members of the Tiny Toons crew around the lot, and they had grew fond of the group. Yakko had noticed that Buster had been gone for a while, but he had pushed it aside, figuring that Buster was on a long vacation. Buster had mentioned that he wanted to go on vacation and that Plotz wouldn't let him.

_Maybe he decided to go on his own? No, Buster wouldn't run away, would he? Why didn't Babs call me about this? She probably doesn't want to talk to anyone._

Wakko silently sobbed as Yakko held him.

"I knew he wouldn't just run off. That's why Babs hadn't been talking as much. I mean, she would still talk to me, she just seemed sad whenever I saw her," Wakko said as he wiped away his tears.

"Maybe she thought he did run off. We should go see her today. Maybe she can shed some light on all of this," Yakko reassured his brother.

"Good morning!" Yakko and Wakko turned to see their sister happily coming towards them.

When she saw their saddened faces, her smile dropped.

"What's going on?"

"Buster's missing," Yakko said quietly.

"You mean, he's not on vacation?"

"No he never was. At least we think he's not," said Wakko.

"We're going to see Babs today and see if we can get some answers," said Yakko.

Dot swiped at her eyes and nodded.

"What about shooting today?" she asked.

"We'll go see her after we're done."

The day went on and the Warners went to shoot their show like they always do. There was less energy and happiness around the lot though.

"What if she's not home?" asked Dot for the hundredth tine.

"She will be Dot," said Yakko.

"How do you know?"

"I just do."

They arrived at Babs' door and knocked. Luckily, her home wasn't far away from the Warner lot, and the Warner's could just walk there.

"Hello?" came a soft voice as a familiar pink bunny opened the door.

"Hi Babs," said Yakko.

"Hi guys. I suppose you're here for the same reason everyone else had been coming to my door."

"I'm here to listen," said Yakko.

Babs sighed and motioned them inside.

"Alright, first of all I don't want to be pitied," Babs said in a demanding voice.

"We understand," said Yakko. "What do you think happened?"

"Well, I know that Buster would never just leave without a note or without telling me, so when I noticed he was gone I panicked. I didn't want everyone knowing though, so I acted as if nothing happened."

"Why didn't you want people knowing?" asked Wakko. "I mean, if more people knew, more people could look for him, right?"

"I suppose... but I..." Babs broke down into tears. "I panicked, ok! I didn't know what to do but I didn't want to make a big deal out of it! I don't know what happened to him!"

"Nice job," Yakko whispered to Wakko, who now felt guilty for making a girl cry.

"Babs, it's ok. If one of my brothers went missing, I'd panic to. Unless it was Wakko," said Dot, trying to relive Babs with a little comedy. Wakko glared at her, but then looked back to Babs.

"Sorry Babs," He said.

"It's not your fault. I swear though, if his disappearance was caused by someone, that someone will pay." Babs' eyes were filled with fire and anger now as she clenched her fists.

"Well Babs, thanks. We better get going now. It's late," said Yakko, wanting to et away from the furious Babs as quickly as possible.

Whenever Dot was angry, he knew to stay away, and Dot was only six. He could only imagine what Babs would do if he made her angry.

"Alright. Thanks for stopping by guys," said Babs, lowering her anger.

"Well, that explains why Babs was trying to act like nothing happened," said Wakko as they headed back to the lot.

"That's about all it explains," muttered Dot. "We still barely know anything!"

"Well, I say let the professionals handle it. We don't have any info that could really help, so there's nothing we can do," said Yakko as the headed toward their tower.

"I can't believe he's gone. It's been strange not seeing him around the lot, but now it's even weirder," said Dot, more to herself.

"I'm sure Buster will be fine. He can usually get himself out of tough situations," Yakko reassured himself.

"Well sibs, I'm beat. I say we turn in."

"To what?" Yakko smiled as they did their routine joke.

"To sleep," Dot replied. "I'm tired."

"You? You didn't have to sing all the words in the english language today, did you?" asked Yakko, arms crossed.

"No, but I had to sit there and listen to it."

"Right, because doing nothing's completely exhausting," said Wakko as they climbed into the tower.

"You bet it is!"

"Please Wakko?" Dot pleaded as she batted her eyelashes.

"Why can't you just eat cereal?" Wakko asked in annoyance as he poured himself some milk.

"But Wakko, sweet brother of mine..."

_Oh brother. Here we go. Why did She have to wake up early. Why did__** I **__have to wake up early. She'd bug Yakko if he was awake._

"Pancakes are so much more delicious than cereal. Will you please go to the store and buy me some? Pretty please with chocolate and whipped cream and a big red cherry on top?"

_Why didn't I wake up Yakko when I woke up? Oh yeah, he told me not to. Oh no, she's giving me the Bambi eyes. Curse that Disney movie!_

"Wakko..."

"Fine!" he snapped. "But I get to eat them first!" With that he grabbed some sparemoney off the counter and stomped out the tower door.

"Thanks big brother!" yelled Dot as he left.

"Whatever," he mumbled.

_Curse her cuteness powers. She thinks she's little miss perfect._

It took him about fifteen minutes to walk to the store.

"Pancakes. There they are," he said as he grabbed a box from the freezer section. On the other side he spotted some chocolate ice cream.

_I have extra money, _he thought, as a goofy smile spread across his face.

As he left the store and started walking back towards his tower, something caught his eye. A man in a long dark coat and a black fedora was quickly walking into an alley, pulling his collar up to hide his face.

_A creepy guy wearing a long dark coat in California and lurking around in dark alleys. Well, I'm interested. _

Wakko sat his groceries down against the wall of a nearby building and followed the man into the alley, trying to be as quiet as possible. When Wakko noticed that there was nobody else in the alley other than the mysterious stranger and himself, he became confused. Then he became afraid.

The man turned without warning to face Wakko, who was now frozen where he stood. Wakko didn't know why he was scared. The only thing he was afraid of was clowns, but something about this man seemed... off.

"Hello little boy," the man said as he stepped towards Wakko. His voice was low and uninviting.

_Run! Why aren't I running! _

Wakko, though wanting to flee, was glued to the spot. He could feel himself shaking now. From behind him, he heard footsteps, but before he could see who it was, he felt something come down on his head. The pain was almost instant as he fell to the ground. The last thing he saw before blacking out was a bag being pulled over his head.


	4. Chapter 3 Wake Up!

**I'm all the way to chapter three! I didn't even think I'd get passed the prologue! Thanks again to my reviewers, especially Animanizanny. You should check out Animanizanny's story Royal Pains. After reading this, you might need a laugh. Anyways, enjoy. Or not. It's up to you.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Animaniacs. **

Chapter 3: Wake Up!

Yakko impatiently tapped his finger on the kitchen table.

"Are you sure you just sent him to get pancakes?"

Dot kept glancing at the door expecting her brother to come marching in at any moment, but he never did.

"Well, you know Wakko. He's probably just buying some extra stuff, like ice cream and chocolate. He might be messing with the store clerk. Yeah! That's it!" Dot said more to reassure herself than her brother.

"Yeah, you're probably right. We'll just wait a little longer I suppose."

But as they waited, minutes went by, and still, nothing. Yakko began to get worried. Wakko wouldn't just run off, would he? They always ate breakfast together.

"I'm gonna go find him. You wanna come?" Yakko asked.

"Yeah. He probably fell asleep on the way back or something. He was up before me," Dot said, but Yakko could hear the doubt in her voice.

"Let's go."

Yakko jumped out the tower door and began running right when he hit the ground. Dot was following close behind him.

_He's probably just taking his time in the freezer section. I'm sure he'll be there. _

Yakko and Dot ran through the doors of the store and immediately began searching, but despite their efforts, they came out without Wakko.

"Where could he be?" Dot asked as she panted.

Yakko was about to answer her, until he spotted something against the building they were standing by. He picked up the grocery bag that Wakko had set down before he was kidnaped. Inside, he found pancakes and chocolate ice cream.

_No. This can't be Wakko's. It's possible that someone else bought ice cream and pancakes at four in the morning, right?_

As much as Yakko hated to admit it, he knew this was Wakko's bag, but Wakko was nowhere in sight. Then, something else caught his eye. He walked to the edge of the alley, where he spotted a familiar red cap.

_Something's wrong._

Yakko grabbed his sister's hand and began running.

"Where're we going?"

"To get help. We won't make the same mistake that Babs made. We're gonna find our brother!"

_Ow... my head._

Wakko sat up, but instantly regretted it as it only made his headache worse.

_Where am I? _He thought to himself.

He looked around, but saw nothing, literally. He was surrounded by darkness, unable to see where he was. The only thing he could see were his gloves and his white fur that always seemed to stick out in the dark. Suddenly, a red light shot down on him from above. He peered around the room again, but still saw nothing. He was the only thing that could be seen.

He jumped when he began to hear laughing... hysterical, high-pitched, crazy laughing.

"Who's there?" he tried to say, but it only came out as a whisper.

Out of the darkness came a familiar white-faced demon that Wakko thought he would never have to see again.

"Clown!"

He reached behind his back, but couldn't find his mallet or his gag bag. He began to panic as the clown came closer.

"Hello nice puppy boy!"

_The makeup. The big shoes. The crazy hair. Make it stop! I have to run!_

With that, Wakko stormed off in the opposite direction of the clown, only to hear running behind him. But to his horror, he didn't hear just one creepy voice now.

"Come here little puppy!" screamed another high-pitched voice, a different one, but still scary non the less.

_Oh no... I'm being chased by clowns... I'm being chased by clowns!_

Wakko kept running despite his pounding headache and the burning pain in his legs. He suddenly fell face first to the ground when he stumbled over one of his feet.

"Puppy boy! Don't run away!" yelled a third clown as he towered over Wakko. "We just wanna play with you and ride around you in our little car!"

"No! Go away!" he screamed, tightly shutting his eyes.

He thought that when he opened them, they would be gone, but they weren't. In fact, there were even more towering over him now. Wakko shook in fear as the clowns began to morph. Their teeth grew sharp and their eyes grew wide and demented. Wakko kept reaching behind his back for his mallet, even though he knew his efforts were useless. He let out a yelp as the demon clowns lunged at him.

Wakko's eyes shot open, revealing a blinding white ceiling above him. He slowly sat up, his heart still pounding in his chest from his nightmare. His nightmare.

_It was just a nightmare?_

Wakko sighed in relief, but his relief vanished when he realized that he wasn't in his tower. As he looked around, he noticed that he was in a weird lab/hospital type room. On the right side of the wall was a window revealing three human men in white lab coats looking in at him.

_What's going on? Am I still dreaming? _

Wakko looked down only to find himself in a white gown. He reached up to grab his cap, but it was missing.

_What happened? How did I even get here?_

Wakko's eyes grew wide as he remembered the events of the previous morning. Or was it this morning? He couldn't remember.

_That weird guy in the fedora. Me getting stuffed into a bag._

Wakko gently touched the bump on his head, but winced at the sudden pain.

"Good morning sunshine!" said a voice cheerfully over the intercom. "Did we sleep well?"

_Hardy, _Wakko thought, but he remained silent. Wakko peered to the window once more and found it was one of the three men that were speaking to him.

"I can understand that you don't want to communicate at this time. I know you probably had a rough night."

_How does he know that? He can't read my dreams, can he? That's creepy!_

Wakko worked up the courage to speak.

"Where am I?" To his surprise, his voice was raspy and dry. He cleared it and spoke slightly louder.

"Why am I here?"

The man currently speaking to him, a tall man with black hair and bottlecap glasses, smiled widely at him.

"Don't worry about that. Just hold still, ok?"

Wakko was startled as a large circular machine began to come down around him from above. He was expecting to be shocked or hurt, but he felt nothing. He simply heard a beeping sound as the machine spun around him.

As it lifted back up, a computerized voice spoke.

"_No color loss detected."_

Wakko tilted his head in confusion. What was going on?

"You're a tough little toon, aren't you?" spoke the man. "No madder. This just makes our experiment more interesting."

The man took out a clipboard and scribbled something down.

Wakko knew it wasn't the best question to ask in his situation, but he couldn't help it, being the strange and curious eight-year-old that he was.

"Hey mister?" The man looked at him. "Where's my hat?"

The man raised a brow.

"I have no knowledge of your hat."

"Oh," Wakko said sheepishly.

"Alright little... toon boy," Wakko raised an eyebrow at the way the man said toon. Like it was a disease. "We're going to run a little test, ok? Just relax."

_What does he mean another-_

But Wakko's thoughts were cut off as a green gas began to fill the room. He suddenly became very drowsy and his head fell back down on the hard table he was laying on.

_A whole day of searching, and still, nothing. _

Dot looked at Yakko, concerned. Despite everyone telling him that they hadn't seen Wakko, he still kept asking. He had been up all night calling people, she could see the fatigue in his eyes. She was worried about Wakko, really worried, but she was worried about her oldest brother too. She already lost one brother, she didn't need to mentally lose the other.

"Yakko..."

"Dot, don't even say it!" he snapped. "I don't need sleep!"

Dot just stared at him, stunned. He almost never yelled at her, even when she deserved it, but now he was yelling at her for caring about him. Her fists clenched and her eyes narrowed.

_Big mistake big brother._

She marched up to him and out of nowhere snatched the phone out of his hand.

"Dot! What are you-"

She stood on a chair so she was his height and pressed her nose against his, evilly glaring at him.

"You listen here Yakko Warner! If you think calling people that you know don't know where Wakko is just to reassure yourself is going to get us anywhere, then you seriously need to go get your head checked! If you want to find him, then you need to get out there and look for him! Do you understand?"

Yakko stared at her, speechless, which was very rare for Yakko. Usually, he was the witty one, always thinking of ideas. Always having a plan. This time though, his baby sister was the one with more sense than him. An awkward silence went on for several minutes until Yakko finally broke it.

"I'm sorry. You're right."

"I know I am," she said proudly.

"We need to get out there and find him, but first we need to know where to look." Dot glared at him again.

"What did I do now?" he asked.

"I'll call someone who might be able to help us. While I talk to him, I want you to take a nap," she said in a motherly tone.

"But Dot-"

"Now!" she snapped.

"Ok! Sheesh! I'm going mom!"

"Some girls got it, some girls don't."

Wakko sat in his bed, shaking.

_When will this end?_

He had slept through another one of those horrid nightmares that he learned the scientists were making him have. He had thought that the clown nightmare seemed a little too real, but he didn't really think to much into it. Know it made sense. They were making him have nightmares, he didn't know how or why, but he knew they were.

This nightmare was also a clown nightmare, just like the rest, but it was worse. Instead of them starting out happy and them changing, they were already morphed and had caught him before he even started running.

"Hello again toon boy," said the man from his first nightmare.

"My name is Wakko!" Wakko yelled, unable to contain it any longer. "Why am I here!" he demanded to know.

"Well... Wakko, I can't tell you that right now." Wakko gritted his teeth.

_This isn't fair!_

"Alright toon- I mean- Wakko. We're going to run another test, but this one will be different than the others."

Wakko began to shiver, already frightened for what was coming.

"Hey mister! What kind of tests are these anyway? How is giving me bad dreams a test?"

"Just stay still Wakko."

_He obviously doesn't know much about how us Warners act. If you ask us to "stay still" that doesn't mean we'll listen._

Wakko was about to jump off the table when suddenly a bar fell over him, holding him down. He struggled to push it off, but it wouldn't budge. He kicked his legs , trying to move out, but two straps wrapped around Wakko's ankles, holding his legs down. The same thing happened with his wrists.

"This might sting a little Wakko."

_What?_

He felt something pinch his skin and found that a needle was being pushed into his arm by a strange machine. His whole body began going numb and he started to feel that familiar drowsy feeling.

_No! Don't fall asleep! Don't... fall..._

He struggled to hold his eyes open, but whatever they injected into him was taking over.

He almost instantly found himself in a dream. It wasn't pitch black all around him, like in all his other nightmares. Instead, it was completely white.

"Wakko!"

Wakko smiled brightly when he saw his brother running towards him.

_This must be a good dream! I guess they're done with the nightmares._

Much to Wakko's delight, Dot was right behind Yakko.

"Guys! I missed you so much!" he yelled out to them, nearly crying tears of joy.

Just as he was about to reach them, he was cut off by flames bursting up in front of him.

"Yakko! Dot!"

He looked into the flames, horrified at what he saw. His siblings were burning!

"No!"

He reached in and tried to grab Dot, but he only got burned. He held hid hand in pain as tears rolled down his cheeks. His siblings were burning in the flames, and there was nothing he could do. He nearly fainted when he saw their skin melting.

_This is too much! Wake up! _

Wakko continuously pinched himself, but it wouldn't work. He turned away from his dead family. He couldn't stand to look at them anymore. He fell to his knees and sobbed into his hands.


	5. Chapter 4 I'm Here Now

**Alright. Dr. Scratchensniff is in here, and I'm doing the best I can at his accent. When you read this, just imagine him talking like he does on the show. I have to admit, this chapter is... eh... not so great. Forgive me! Like I've said before, I'm a beginner at writing. Thanks to my reviewers for keeping me going though.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Animaniacs.**

Chapter 4: I'm Here Now

Scratchensniff was organizing his papers, when he heard a knock at the door. He opened it and groaned when he spotted the Warners, but then he realized there were only two.

"If you kidses are here for an appointment-"

"Wakko's missing and we don't know where to look for him!" blurted out Dot.

Scratchensniff was silent for a moment, trying to take in what he had heard.

"Scratchy, we thought you might be able to help us," said Yakko, almost in a pleading tone.

"Alright, just calm down, ya? Tell me everything."

Yakko began telling Dr. Scratchensniff about Wakko's trip to the store and how he disappeared. He went on to tell Scratchy that no one had any knowledge on Wakko's disappearance.

"I see..." Scratchy put a hand on his chin, deep in thought. His eyes sparked with a sudden realization.

"Yakko,"

"I'm still here!" Dot snapped.

"And Dot, as you probably know, Wakko is not the only one who has mysteriously disappeared."

"We know," Dot spoke. "Buster has too. I have a feeling they might be connected, but then I thought that was silly."

"Well, Buster and Wakko are not the only who have disappeared. Toons all over Burbank are mysteriously vanishing."

"Really? Do you think the other disappearances are connected to Wakko's?" asked Yakko, intrigued by this new information.

"Yes, I believe they are. And I think I know who is responsible."

"Who?" Yakko and Dot asked in unison.

"Think now, who vould vant to kidnap toons for his own cruel purposes?"

"Scratchy, as much as I love riddles, I'm really in a hurry to find my brother," said Yakko, impatiently tapping his finger on the desk.

"Just answer the question."

Yakko rolled his eyes, but thought about it. His eyes grew wide. It all made sense now.

"Tamson..."

"What? That crazy scientist? But they wouldn't let him!" said Dot in disbelief.

"He is probably doing it illegally, if he is doing it at all," explained Scratchy.

"Who else could have taken Wakko? I mean, I guess a lot of people could, but..." Yakko shook his head. "Where would we look for Tamson Scratchy?"

"Vell, it might not be easy to find. He vould not just be working in a building out in the open."

"Maybe underground?" suggested Dot.

"I need to do some research on him first. Maybe there are people that used to work vith him or zat still work with him that I can speak vith."

"And how long will that take?" asked Yakko, fearing the answer.

"I do not know. I vill get right on it though, ya?"

Yakko sighed, but he didn't really have a choice.

"Alright. Just... hurry. I want my brother back."

Dot looked at Yakko sadly.

"We vill find him."

Scratchy watched them leave the room. He sighed and immediately began his research. He had known that Tamson might have had to do with all the disappearances, so he had called the police about it, but the police hadn't found anything. Scratchensniff was still suspicious, but he had let it go. Now though, it was personal. Though he would never admit it, he was very fond of the Warner children, even if they were zany. Maybe it was Tamson and he was just hiding his work space very well.

_Then again,_ Scratchy thought, _Maybe it wasn't Tamson at all... But it doesn't hurt to research it anyway._

_Meanwhile..._

Wakko watched as the scientist placed the plate of apples and ham in the room.

"Here's lunch Wakko."

Wakko just stared at it, not even daring to eat it. For the first time in history, he didn't feel like eating.

It was horrible now. He thought it was horrible before, but now it was unbearable. He didn't even know what was real anymore. All his nightmares that they had been causing were beginning to morph with reality. He was beginning to have nightmares about being in the lab, and at first, he didn't even know they were nightmares. It seemed like he was just sitting on the lab table awake, until it happened. They weren't even nightmares about clowns anymore. He would love to have clowns after the nightmares they'd been giving him. Heck, he'd embrace a clown dream right now. No, they had found his weakness, his family. All his dreams were about him losing his family... inside the lab.

Wakko shivered and pulled his legs up to his chest. The room was over air conditioned, and it didn't help that he was in a thin gown either.

_And I don't have my hat._

But his missing hat was the least of his troubles. They didn't even warn him about the nightmares anymore. They just happened. He didn't know whether he was asleep or awake anymore, and it was driving him crazy.

"Wakko."

Wakko jumped at the booming voice speaking in the intercom.

"There's someone who would like to speak to you, ok?"

Wakko didn't reply.

_Who?_

Suddenly, the white doors slid open, and a familiar man strolled in. Wakko tilted his head.

_He looks familiar..._

"Hello. You're name is Wakko, correct?"

"Uh huh..." Wakko said, only half listening. Then it hit him.

_Mr. Tamson? The nut? He's behind this?_

Wakko narrowed his eyes at the man, but Tamson ignored it.

"Well Wakko, I have to say that you are a very interesting specimen."

Wakko clenched his fists and bit his lip to keep from screaming.

_Specimen? Is that all I am? Just something to experiment on? I have feelings! I have a life!_

"Why are you talking to me?" Wakko asked through clenched teeth. Tamson only smiled.

"I know it looks bad, but just think, you're helping me break new ground in the study of the toon species. You just-"

"I don't care about your stupid studies!" Wakko screamed in frustration. "I have a family that I love, and I'm tired of seeing them die over and over again! What if you had to watch your family keep dying?"

"I have detached myself from my family to prevent such silly emotions," said Tamson calmly.

"You're a heartless bastard."

Wakko was shocked at himself. He never cussed, but this guy was just unbelievable!

"Oh Wakko, you're just to young to understand. How old are you anyway?"

"Seventy," Wakko spat.

"That's nonsense. I'm quite aware that only drawn toons can live forever. I'm also aware that you're not a drawn toon." Tamson looked Wakko up and down. "You look about seven or eight."

"Why do you care?"

"I'm a scientist. It's my job to be curious."

"You've flipped your lid!"

Tamson grinned.

"You're very stubborn and feisty aren't you? I like that. It makes this even more interexting." With that, Tamson left the room.

_I really wish I had my mallet right now._

That brought another question into Wakko's mind. Where was his mallet? If he had his mallet, none of this would be happening to him. Wakko lay down, not even on the table, but on the floor. He crawled over to the plate that had been left for him and reluctantly grabbed and apple slice. Usually Wakko could shove a whole table in his mouth, swallow it, and still be hungry. But now, Wakko simply nibbled on the end of the apple to pass time as he awaited his next nightmare.

_Somewhere else..._

"Jackson Web," Dot whispered as she, Yakko, and Scratchy approached the door.

"If I am correct, Mr. Web used to vork for Tamson, until he retired," explained Scratchy.

Yakko crossed his fingers.

_Please let this guy know something._

Yakko knocked on the door, and waited. He was about to leave in disappointment, until the door cracked open.

"I don't want whatever you're selling so go away," spoke a gruff voice from behind the cracked door.

Yakko cleared his throat.

"We're not selling anything Mr. Web," said Yakko.

"If that's so then- wait? How did you know my name?"

Mr. Web fully opened the door to reveal himself. He was an old hunched over man who was balding.

"Ew..." whispered Dot.

Yakko elbowed her in the side, telling her to be quiet.

"You are Mr. Web then?" asked Yakko, just to be positive.

"Yeah. Who are you and what do you want?" Mr. Web asked harshly.

"Vell sir, ve have come to ask you some questions," said Scratchy.

"What kind of questions?"

"Did you used to work with Tamson?" Yakko asked, getting straight to the madder at hand. Web just stared at them for a moment, as if studying them.

"Yes, I used to work with that good-for-nothin' freak Tamson."

Yakko was half pleased that Web was not fond of Tamson, but he was also half worried. What if this man didn't have any information that could be of use to them?"

"Do you still keep in touch vith him?" asked Scratchy hopefully.

Web, sneered.

"That son-of-a-bitch thinks we're best friends, so I'm forced to keep in touch with him."

Yakko's hope began to increase.

"Can we come in or what?" asked Dot impatiently.

"Why not. All this talk about Tamson has got me curious. Come in." he motioned them in.

Yakko was slightly surprised. By Web's attitude, he was expecting his house to be a pigsty with beer bottles all over the floor, but his house was very clean and welcoming. He had a stone fireplace on the right side of his livingroom and many pictures framed on the wall. Yakko's eyes grew wide when he saw them. It was Web standing with a beautiful woman and two children, all of them smiling. It didn't take Yakko long to see that it was his family. The children had his eyes.

"I suppose you're wondering where my family is now," said Web, noticing Yakko's interest in his pictures.

"I was just looking, but I am curious, being the person that I am," said Yakko.

"They left me. I was so busy working for Tamson that I forgot what was really important. Back then, it made sense. I needed work and Tamson was paying good, but now..."

Yakko felt sympathy for the man.

_Looks like Tamson didn't just break up toon families._

"So, why are you toons here anyway?"

"Tamson took our brother," said Dot quietly, but loud enough for Web to hear.

Web's once stern face softened at this news.

"I'm sorry," he said sincerely. "Tamson doesn't have a heart."

"We were vondering if you knew where his hideout was."

Web fell back on the couch and rubbed his temples.

"Yeah, I know. Tamson keeps in touch with me."

"But he broke up your family. Didn't you tell him you were done with him? How can you still be friends?" Yakko asked.

"Back then, he convinced me that it wasn't my fault my family left me. I was do gullible, I believed him. It took me twenty years of living alone to figure it out... By then, I had to retire. I found it pointless to yell at Tamson after twenty years, but I was still angry at him, and for more reasons than my family leaving."

"You still keep in touch with him though?" asked Dot.

"He trusts me after working with him so long." Web smiled. "Enough of this chitchat. You wanna know where your brother is, right?

"Yes! I mean, yeah," Yakko calmed himself.

"Well, he tells me everything about his studies," Web shuddered when he said 'studies.' "So it's only natural that he tells me where he performs his experiments."

Web went into the kitchen and Yakko could hear him digging through some papers. Web walked back in with a little slip of paper in his hand.

"Here," he said, handing the paper to Yakko.

Yakko looked at it's surface, but only saw numbers.

2543261.

"What's this?" Yakko waved the paper in the air.

"It's the code to get in. On the edge of Toontown, there's a forest, a small one. About six miles in, you'll find a very small number pad sticking out of the ground. That the code to get in.

"So it is underground!" Dot said, proud of herself.

"Yes, but the pad is well hidden in between some trees. He made sure to cover it up good, but if you search hard enough, you'll find it."

Yakko began to pull on Scratchy's arm, while at the same time thanking Mr. Web. Dot followed her eldest brother by pulling on Scratchy's other arm.

"Do not vorry! I am coming!"

"Well you're not coming fast enough! We gotta find it!" Yakko nearly yelled as he pushed Scratchy into the driver's seat.

"We're coming to get you Wakko!" Dot said in a positive manor.

Yakko looked out the window.

_Hopefully we're not too late._

_In the lab..._

"Stop! Please!" Wakko pleaded, tears in his eyes.

He watched in horror as his siblings were strapped down to the table by the scientists. Wakko was being held back by two other scientists, and despite how hard he kicked and screamed, he couldn't break free from their grip.

"Wakko! Help!" Dot screamed helplessly. Wakko was unable to look away as they injected his little sister with something.

Her eyes fluttered shut and her head thumped against the medal table.

"No! That's my baby sister! Stop!" Wakko screamed.

The scientists only laughed as they did the same to Yakko. Both his siblings were out cold, and there was nothing he could do about it. Wakko helplessly kicked at the men that were holding him back from his family.

_Curse my short legs!_

Wakko, knowing he was useless, tightly shut his eyes and turned his head away from his siblings. More warm tears stained his fur as he limply hung in the scientists' arms. He could hear them cutting his siblings open, and the sound burned him.

Wakko's eyes popped open and he found himself laying on the floor. He didn't even bother to look around. He knew there were no scientists or siblings in the room with him. The nightmare seemed so real.

_As of now, science is my least favorite subject._

All the nightmares seemed too real to be fake, and that's why they hurt so much. Every time Wakko saw his siblings die, a little piece of his heart along with a little piece of his mind would wither away.

Wakko crawled into one corner of the room and curled up into a ball. He buried his head in his hands and cried. He had a bad feeling that he would be here for a really long time, and that they weren't going to give him a break anytime soon. He didn't even know how long he had been there. He knew it hadn't been very long at all, but for some reason, it felt like he'd been there for decades.

_Yakko... Dot..._

It hurt to even think about there names. Knowing he'd probably never see them again, the thought was unbearable.

Wakko heard the door slide open, but he didn't even bother to look up.

"Here's some water," said a monotone voice. The door slid shut again.

Wakko ignored the man and continued to sob.

_In the forest..._

"This heat is making my hair frizzy!" Dot complained as they continued to search for the number pad, that was proving to be very difficult to locate.

"You're a toon, your hair doesn't get 'frizzy'," Yakko mocked her.

She huffed and continued to search for the pad.

"But she is right. It is hot out, ya?" Scratchy said.

"Don't tell me you're turning into a diva like my sister," said Yakko.

"I am not a diva!"

"Yeah, yeah. Just keep searching miss 'This skirt doesn't match my fir!'"

Dot gritted her teeth, but didn't reply as she continued to search.

"He said they were in between some trees, but which trees?" Dot asked no one in particular, getting frustrated.

"Ve vill just have to keep searching," said Scratchy.

Yakko came across two large trees that were leaning inward at the top. They were barely touching at the bottom where a bunch of foliage was growing in between them. Yakko immediately began digging around in the plants, searching for the number pad. A wide grin stretched across his face when he spotted a very small, thin little pad sticking three incheed out of the ground.

"Guys! I found it!"

Without wasting anymore time, he dug around in his pockets for the little slip of paper. He punched in the numbers on the pad and waited.

_Password accepted, _said a computerized voice.

Yakko stumbled backwards as the trees began to separate, leaving a giant space of bare dirt in between. Emerging from the dirt came a pod, big enough to hold one human man... and two small toons.

"You can wait out here Scratchy," said Yakko as he approached the pod, Dot following anxiously behind.

"But Yakko-"

"See ya Scratchy!" Yakko and Dot said in unison as the pod door closed.

Scratchensniff watched as the pod lowered into the ground and the trees moved back together. Scratchensniff pulled his phone out of his pocket and called the police.

Dot and Yakko held on as the pod began to whiz through a dark tunnel. Dot smiled in delight.

"This is like a roller coaster!" said Dot cheerfully. "I wish Wakko was here to ride it with us."

A silence fell upon the pod, until Yakko finally broke it.

"He'll be here for the ride back."

Dot nodded, trying to have faith.

The pod jerked forward and then came to a halt. Yakko and Dot exited the pod into a long white hallway with doors running down each side. Yakko noticed some people walking in and out of the doors, but not many. The people walking through the doors seemed in too much of a hurry to notice the toons standing in the hallway.

"This place is huge. It'll take forever to find him," whispered Dot.

"Even if it does take forever, we _will _find him," said Yakko, determined to find his little brother.

"Hey! You!"

Yakko and Dot's heads snapped up to see a scientist running towards them.

"Get out your mallet!" Yakko ordered, and Dot did as told. Yakko looked the now terrified man in the eyes.

"Don't even think about calling for help, or show you how to _really _use a mallet," Yakko ordered in an intimidating way.

The man gulped and backed up a step, not wanting to get swung at.

"Where's our brother!" Dot demanded as she brought her mallet up.

"I-I don't know! Please, don't hurt me!"

"Then tell us where our brother is!"

Yakko could see the fury in Dot's eyes. He was pleased.

"I could tell you if I knew his name!"

"Wakko Warner. He looks just like us," Yakko said, his eyes narrowed at the monster in front of him.

"I-I'll check for him..."

Yakko, merely for fun, lunged forward towards the man and fake roared. The man ran off in terror while Dot giggled.

"I think you made him pee himself," said Dot, suppressing her giggles.

"I just got it," said Yakko proudly.

"What?"

"It."

Dot rolled her eyes as the man ran back with a clipboard in hand.

"Um. I-I don't exactly know where he is. H-he's in one of the extreme experimentation rooms. T-the doors are l-labeled. You need a key card to get in. T-take mine, just leave me alone!," he stuttered.

Yakko peered at some of the doors and saw different labels. Some said 'simple', others said 'intermediate', and a few said 'extreme.'

_Good. There's not many that say extreme. We'll be able to find him faster._

Yakko looked at the man once more and gave him a disgusted look.

"You make me sick," Yakko spat, and Dot nodded.

With that, they began their search for Wakko.

They began to search room after room, most of the extreme rooms empty.

_Maybe that sci- obsessed freak lied to me. What if Wakko isn't in the extreme room?_

With that, Yakko's heart suddenly sunk to his stomach. He knew the man probably didn't lie to him, he was too terrified. But Yakko couldn't shake the feeling that he should look in some of the simple rooms. Yakko grabbed Dot's hand and ran to the closest room labeled 'simple.'

"What are you doing?" she asked, staring at him.

"I just have a feeling..."

Yakko stuck the card in the slot and the door slid open. Luckily, there weren't any scientists in the room, so he didn't have to worry about that, but unfortunately, Wakko wasn't in the room either.

But then Yakko saw him.

"Yakko? Dot?"

"Buster?" they asked in unison.

A smile broke across Yakko's face.

"Buster!"

Yakko ran up to him and gave him a hug. They quickly broke apart as they awkwardly coughed.

"It was a man hug," Buster clarified.

"Definitely a man hug."

"Will you ladies shut up!" Dot interrupted. "Buster, glad to see you. I see you're ok, but we need to find Wakko now."

Buster's eyes grew wide.

"They took Wakko?"

"Yep. And we're here to take him back," said Yakko.

They all ran out, only to find many scientists surrounding them, guns in their hands.

"Don't move, or we'll shoot!" yelled a blond female scientist.

"Hellooooo nurse!"

Dot elbowed Yakko in the ribs.

"They're on the bad side!"

"I can't help it!" said Yakko.

The woman's face became confused, but quickly changed back to serious. She held up the gun and Buster grinned at her.

"You guys don't know anything about toons," he said as he shook his head in false disappointment. "Guns can't hurt us."

"Oh yeah? We'll just see about that!"

The woman aimed her gun at Buster and pulled the trigger. At first, Yakko was terrified that they really had hurt Buster, but he sighed in relief when Buster simply had an empty hole going straight through him. Buster smiled.

"What do ya know? I'm holy! I guess I'm going to heaven."

The woman's face dropped.

"But... how..."

"Well, we'd like to stay and chat, but we have to go save our brother," explained Dot in a casual manner.

"Get them!" Yelled a male scientist, and everyone lunged at the toons.

"I don't have my mallet!" Buster yelled.

"We got it!" said Dot, as she readied her swing.

Yakko and Dot swung with all their might, not holding back. Usually, when they were shooting their cartoons, they had to use toon powers keep whoever they were wacking with the mallet safe. This was an exception though.

They easily took out the scientists. Yakko turned to Buster just to make sure he was ok. By now The hole in Buster's chest had healed. Sure, toons could get shot and hurt, but only by toon guns. That didn't mean normal things couldn't hurt them though. Just because real guns couldn't hurt them didn't mean they couldn't get knocked out by real objects or poisoned with real poison. The thought made Yakko shiver.

"Alright, let's find Wakko."

As they ran, Dot couldn't help but ask Buster a question.

"What did they do to you Buster?"

"Well, I actually thought that they'd do worse. All they did was put a weird helmet on my head and monitor my thoughts or something sciency like that."

"I hope it was that simple for Wakko," said Yakko, overhearing the conversation.

They kept checking all the rooms labeled extreme, only having to knock out a few scientists that got in their way. Yakko hoped that he didn't kill any. He was angry that they took his brother away from him. Beyond angry, but he didn't want to kill anyone. He didn't want to sink that low. The three toons came to the last door labeled extreme at the very end of the long hallway.

Yakko crossed his fingers as he stuck the card in the slot. The door slid open to reveal a large bright lab room. In the corner of that room sat his little brother, curled up in a ball.

Without a second thought, Yakko and Dot ran to their brother. Buster guarded the door.

"Wakko!" Yakko yelled as his wrapped his arms around his shaking brother.

Wakko didn't answer, but continued to blankly look ahead.

"Wakko?" Dot asked, worry creeping into her voice.

Still no answer.

_What did they do to you? _

Yakko began to shake Wakko shoulders, but despite his efforts, Wakko didn't respond.

"No. What did they do?" Dot cried.

Yakko took a deep breath in and pulled his empty brother into his arms, cradling him.

"I'm here now Wakko. I'm here now."

He kept whispering the same thing over and over, even though Wakko couldn't hear him. Dot lay her head on Wakko's chest and cried.

"You guys aren't dead."

Yakko's head jolted up and he took a deep breath in.

"Wakko?"

"You guys are alive. Are you really here?"

Dot's arms flew around Wakko.

"Wakko!"

Wakko slowly brought his arms around her and smiled.

"You're really here."

Yakko was overjoyed to see his brother. He reached into his pocket and grabbed Wakko's cap.

"Here ya go sibling. I thought you might want this back."

Wakko grabbed the hat and pulled it to his chest before putting it back on his head. Yakko pulled his ears through the holes cut out in the hat.

"So, are you hungry?"

"I'm starving!"

Yakko couldn't help but smile.

"Let's go home and order some pizza."

**Is this the end? Of course not! If it was, the prologue wouldn't make sense! Well, there's the chapter. Sorry if it's not great. Please forgive me. Anyways, please R&R, be it good or bad.**


	6. Chapter 5 Sick

**Hiya people! I don't know why I just said that, just for fun I guess. Anyways, thanks again to my reviewers. When I started this story, I thought I was gonna get, like, 1 review. And one more thing, you'll see ... in the story signifying a change in POV. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Animaniacs and no profit was made off this story. I'm just writing it for fun and to entertain people :)**

Chapter 5: Sick

Yakko and Dot tried to get Wakko to tell them what the scientists did to him, but he would just shake his head and say he didn't want to talk about it. Yakko let it go after several attempts. He was just happy to have his brother back.

Buster had went home to an overjoyed Babs and the Warners had went home to the tower, where they ordered pizza and tried to forget about the whole nightmare they had all just experienced. The next morning, Yakko ran to his siblings with the newspaper.

"Check it out guys. Looks like Tamson won't be bothering us anymore."

Wakko and Dot looked at the paper.

_Tamson behind bars. Arrested for illegal toon experimentation._

"How does it feel to be trapped in a cage Tamson? I bet it's not fun! I should know!" Wakko said.

"He deserves it," said Dot.

"Well, I'm gonna hang this on the fridge and maybe go shopping. We're out of hotdog buns," said Yakko, checking the cabinet.

"No hotdog buns! No!" yelled Wakko dramatically. Dot rolled her eyes.

"You guys can stay here if you want. Wakko's probably tired and I know Dot doesn't want to get off her lazy but and come with me."

"I'm not lazy!" she argued.

"Yeah, you keep telling yourself that sis," he said as he walked out the door.

And soon as he left, Dot turned to Wakko.

"What did they do to you?" she asked.

Her sudden desire to ask him questions caught him off-guard.

"What?"

"What did they do to you, ya know, in the lab?"

Wakko looked down as the painful memories began to flood back. He shuffled his feet and didn't make eye contact with Dot.

"I don't wanna talk about it," he said.

"Pretty please..."

He glanced up at her, but regretted it when he caught a glimpse of her cute face.

"Pretty please with whipped cream and chocolate and a cherry on top...?" she asked. She could see his defenses lowering.

"I won't tell Yakko," she mentioned.

Wakko sighed.

"Ok. I'll tell you."

Dot smiled, happy she was victorious.

"They gave me nightmares," he muttered.

"Wakko, I'm serious. What did they do?"

He looked at her with a serious expression.

"They gave me nightmares about losing you guys. In every nightmare, you guys would die. You and Yakko. They would keep killing you off, just to drive me insane."

Wakko looked away from her to hide his pained expression.

Guilt began to tug at Dot's heart, and she felt like she had to do something to make it up to him. She walked to his side and slowly wrapped her arms around him. He didn't say anything or try to push her off. Dot felt like she had done something right now. That this one hug was helping her brother even more than she knew. It felt good to help her brother, after all, he'd helped her lots of times before. Sure, Yakko was more of the parent figure, but Wakko could be the big brother too.

"I never want to lose you guys again," he whispered.

"Don't worry. I promise you'll never lose us again," she whispered back.

Dot suddenly remembered something from her past. The time when she realized that Wakko could be a great older brother.

"_Waaaaaaaa!" a three-year-old Dot wailed as she held her knee in pain. "Yakko!" she yelled, but he didn't come._

_She looked up at the swings that she had fallen off of. _

_Meanie swings, she thought._

_She continued to cry, until she saw a figure standing in front of her. _

"_Y-Yakko?" she whispered in between whimpers, but then she saw the figure was much shorter than Yakko._

"_G-go away Wakko! I want Yakko! H-hey! What are you doing!" she screamed as he began to lift her up and carry her._

"_Put me down!" she wailed, but he carried on ignoring her constant whining. _

_Wakko was struggling to hold her up. He was already small, even for a five-year-old. Dot continued to scream until she was gently put down on a small blanket. Her blanket. In the abandoned building they were living in at the moment. Wakko had carried her from the park all the way to their current shelter. Wakko panted and sat down next to her. _

"_Yakko's out looking for food," said Wakko quietly. He didn't talk much._

_Dot suddenly felt very guilty. She was supposed to have stayed in their shelter, but she had wondered off and found the park. She looked up to Wakko with thankful eyes. If he hadn't followed her to the park, she would've been all alone with a hurt knee. _

_She crawled next too him, being careful of her knee, and lay her head on his shoulder._

"_Thanks," she said._

"Uh, Dot. You can let go now."

Dot came back to reality and realized she was still hugging Wakko. She quickly let go of him.

"Sorry," she said.

He gave her a goofy smile, his tongue hanging out of his mouth.

"That's ok! We all need a Disney moment sometimes."

"I've got hotdog buns! And ice cream!" said Yakko as he burst through the door. "Who wants some?"

"Me!" Wakko and Dot said in unison.

_Late that night..._

"Hellooooo Cindy Crawford!" Yakko said quietly as he stared at the magazine cover.

He loved staying up late, even if he had to go to shoot his show at five in the morning. He continued to flip through the magazine till he saw a small figure standing at in the doorway.

"Hi Wakk. Did I wake you?"

Wakko shook his head and continued to look at the ground. Yakko noticed the stressed look on Wakko's face.

"You alright?" he asked.

"I had a bad dream," said Wakko.

Yakko motioned Wakko to the spot on the couch next to him. Wakko came over and sat down, laying his head on Yakko's shoulder.

"Do you want to tell me about it?"

Wakko shrugged his shoulders.

"It's really no big deal. It was just a clown dream," he said sleepily.

Yakko was somewhat shocked. Usually a clown dream, in Wakko's opinion, was a horrible nightmare.

"If that was a bad dream, then what's a nightmare?" Yakko asked, curious.

"A nightmare takes away what you love most and makes it seem like it's really happening, even though it's just a dream."

Yakko was stunned. If that's what a nightmare was, than he'd never had one.

"Well, if that's the case, I'm glad it was just a bad dream and not a nightmare," said Yakko, not admitting his confusion.

Wakko still seemed slightly upset about something. Any other person wouldn't have noticed the stress hidden in Wakko's eyes, but Yakko wasn't just any other person, he was a big brother.

"You ok Wakk?" he asked, concerned, but Wakko had closed his eyes and drifted to sleep.

Yakko smiled and lifted Wakko's hat off his head, sitting it on the table next to the couch. He carried his sleeping brother to his room and lay him on top of his bed. He would pull the covers over him, but his room tended to get warm at night and he would just kick them off anyways.

_The next morning..._

Yakko sat at the table as he ate some pancakes. He struggled to keep his eyes open.

_Can twelve-year-olds get insomnia? I'm pretty sure I have it._

"Morning Yakko," Dot said as she came into the kitchen rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

"Morning," he replied.

Dot poured herself a bowl of cereal and sat down across from him. Yakko peered at the entrance to the hallway, expecting Wakko to sluggishly walk into the kitchen at any moment, but he never did. Yakko sighed.

_It was because of that nightmare he had in the middle of the night. Wait, not a nightmare, a bad dream._

"Dot, will you do me a favor and go wake up sleeping beauty?"

"He's not beautiful when he sleeps! I am!" she said, taking his request into offense. Yakko rolled his eyes.

"Fine, can you wake up the sloth? Is that better?"

"Much. And yes, I will wake him up," she said, smiling with victory.

...

Dot walked down the hall to Wakko's room, when she suddenly had a random thought.

_How can a hallway even fit in a water tower?_

She shrugged at her own question and opened Wakko's door. He was laying on top of his covers, not unusual for him. Dot walked to his bed and climbed on it.

"Wakko... it's time to get up," she said, gently shaking his shoulders.

He just moaned, not opening his eyes.

_Fine. Looks like I'll have to do this the hard way._

She grinned.

"Wakko! You know that show, Animaniacs? Yeah! We have that today! So, GET UP!" she yelled into his ear, shaking his shoulders violently.

She laughed as she ran behind his door, bracing herself for a furious brother. Her smile faded away when he simply let out a small cough and turned his back to her. Her joy was quickly replaced with worry. She walked over to his bed again, climbing on.

"Wakko? Are you ok?" she asked, concerned.

Wakko's eyes half opened, but then fell shut again.

"Leave me alone," he mumbled, but it was barely audible.

Dot was really worried now. She climbed behind him on the bed and carefully pulled him up so that his head was in her lap. She didn't know why she did this, she just felt like she had to do something. Her worry sparked when she felt the heat of fever radiating off his body. She could see sweat beading his forehead and his chest moving up and down in an abnormal pattern. Dot's tail twitched nervously.

"Yakko!"

...

Yakko heard Dot call his name, and at first he thought it was because she couldn't get Wakko up.

"Forget it Dot, you're getting him up today!" he yelled back as he read the newspaper.

"Yakko! Wakko's body is hot!"

"G'night everybody!" was his reply, but Dot wasn't laughing.

"Yakko please!" she pleaded. "He's breathing funny!"

Yakko, hearing this news, sprinted down the hall to Wakko's room. He saw an ill looking Wakko with his head on a terrified Dot's lap. He ran to the bedside and became frightened when he saw Wakko's ragged breathing.

_Did I miss something? Was he sick last night? He seemed relatively fine other than the dream._

"Dot, I'm gonna call Mr. Plotz and tell him we're not shooting today. Stay with Wakko, ok?"

She nodded, and he could see tears welling up in her eyes.

"Dot, calm down. I'm sure he'll be ok."

Dot nodded again, but didn't looked convinced.

Yakko ran to the phone like his life depended on it. Hell if he was doing their show today with Wakko so sick, and Wakko was obviously unable to work today. Plotz wouldn't be happy, but hey, family comes before work... and everything else.

**Poor Wakko. Anyways, sorry the update took so long. There was a power outage where I live and it erased the whole chapter, but I wrote it again and here it is! Well, I'll see ya next chapter. I'm gonna go make soup for Wakko or something. **:)


	7. Chapter 6 Hiding Something

**Yay! You guys are amazing! Really, where would I be without your encouraging reviews? Here, have a cupcake! (Hands everyone a cupcake) I'm sorry I haven't updated in a while. As much as I love fanfiction, I have a real life too, but now I'm back with the next chapter! Remember ... means a change in POV. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Animaniacs and no profit was made off this story.**

Chapter 6: Hiding Something

"Please Wakko, just try," Yakko pleaded, pushing the juice box in Wakko's direction.

Wakko turned his head away from it.

"I'm not thirsty," he said, trying to stand his ground, but the attempt was ruined by an abrupt coughing fit.

Yakko was beginning to lose his patience. Wakko refused to drink anything, and as if that didn't scare Yakko enough, Wakko wasn't eating anything either. Wakko Warner. Not hungry. Could those four words even be in the same sentence together?

_That's it, the apocalypse has begun, _Yakko thought grimly.

"Wakko, please..." Yakko said, trying to keep his growing impatience leveled down.

"No. I'm not thirsty," he said again, breathing heavily with every word.

"Wakko," Yakko said in a hard tone, "If you don't drink you'll get dehydrated. If you get dehydrated you'll have to go to the hospital where they'll give you fluid through needles! Is that what you want?" Yakko yelled.

Wakko's ears drooped and his gaze fell upon his covers in shame. He reached out with a shaky hand and grabbed the juice, taking a sip. Yakko's annoyance was replaced with pity for his younger brother. He hated seeing him like this. Tired and barely able to stand on his own two feet. It broke his heart. Usually, Wakko was the most energetic out of all of them, always running or jumping with a goofy smile on his face. Wakko being in this state was unnatural.

Yakko sighed and ran a gloved hand through Wakko's hair, which was damp with sweat.

"I'm sorry for yelling at you," said Yakko in a much calmer tone.

"It's not your fault," Wakko muttered as he sat the juice on the table next to his bed. "I-I'm the one w-who didn't listen," he shivered.

Yakko pulled the blanket over Wakko and smiled at him reassuringly.

"Don't worry, you're forgiven. Just, try drinking more, okay?"

"Okay..."

"I'm going to go talk to Plotz, but I'll be right back," he said.

"Yakko, I'm fine," he said, getting tired of Yakko constantly hovering over him.

Yakko sighed and reluctantly left the room. He didn't want to leave, but he knew Wakko was annoyed at him for hanging over him all day. Wakko just wanted to be alone for a while. Besides, Yakko had to call Plotz back anyways. When he had called him before, saying that they couldn't come today, Plotz had gone into a rant about how children aren't responsible and blah, blah, blah. Yakko hadn't gotten the chance to tell the angry CEO about Wakko's condition, so he just hung up on him. Maybe he was calmed down by now.

"Hello Plotz, it's Yakk-"

"Yakko! You get down from that tower with your siblings right now and do your job!"

Or maybe not.

"Mr. Plotz-"

"How can we make money if we have no cartoons! I don't want your stupid childish excuses either!" yelled the short CEO from the other line.

"Wakko's sick," Yakko said simply into the phone.

"And you- wait, what?"

"We're not there because Wakko's sick. Okay T.P.?"

Yakko was expecting a nice 'Oh, I hope he gets better,' but no. Plotz, sounding even more enraged, began hollering into the phone once again.

"Well it's your responsibility to take care of yourself and your crazy family! But it looks like you couldn't even do that much! I swear, you three are impossible!"

Yakko sighed and shook his head.

"It's not nice to swear T.P. Anyways, I see that this is gonna be just like the last conversation I had with you, so I'm gonna go."

"Don't you dare-"

Yakko hung up the phone before Plotz could finish. He headed towards Wakko's room and put his hand on the knob, but then hesitated.

"_Yakko, I'm fine."_

Yakko remembered how Wakko had said it, like he didn't want Yakko in the room with him at all. It hurt a little, but Yakko could understand. He let go of the doorknob and walked towards the kitchen instead.

_I'll give him some time to himself. Just a little bit._

_**Meanwhile...**_

Wakko hated it. He hated being sick. Toons usually never got sick, and he was no exception. He wasn't used to it. Everything hurt, but that's not what bothered him the most. What bothered him the most was that everything hurt at the same time. If it wasn't the burning in his throat it was the pounding in his head or the aching in his limbs. How could humans put up with it more than once? Did humans have to put up with overprotective older brothers too?

_Why do my arms hurt so bad?_

Wakko had been wondering all day now. His whole body ached, but his arms hurt the most. He couldn't even really explain the type of pain he was feeling. It just hurt to move them at all, and if he did it was like being stuck with a million needles at the same time. He hadn't told anybody about it, not even Yakko. If he did, he knew Yakko would freak out and take him to the hospital. He really didn't want to go to the hospital. He had been there before when Yakko had broken his leg while shooting one of their episodes, and it was horrible. It's like a white prison.

_A white prison, like that lab I was in. _

Wakko shivered.

His head snapped up when he heard a knock at the door. He immediately regretted his action because it only made his head throb more. He assumed it was Yakko at his door, come to hover over him once again, but he was slightly shocked when he saw Dot poke her head through the door. She saw he was awake and looked kind of guilty. Wakko wondered why. He wanted someone to talk to, really he did, he just didn't want to constantly be asked how he was feeling or the last time he went to the bathroom. Who wants to answer a question like that?

"I'm sorry. I'll leave," said Dot suddenly.

"No wait! I mean, please? I want someone to talk to," Wakko said in a hoarse voice.

Dot smiled and ran over to his bed, sitting on the edge.

"How ya feeling?" she asked.

"I'm feeling tired of Yakko."

"Constantly hovering over you?"

Wakko sighed.

"Yep."

"Well, I didn't come in to ask you when you last ate. I just came in to talk to you."

Wakko smiled brightly at her, or as much as he could anyway.

"Thanks," he said.

There was an awkward silence for several minutes, until Dot broke it.

"What's it like to be sick? I mean, I've never been sick before."

Wakko shuffled his feet a little beneath the blanket. How was he supposed to answer? It sucked! No, she would want a better answer than that.

"It's really weird. Your hot and cold at the same time and everything hurts. It's not fun," he said.

She smiled sympathetically at him.

"I can tell."

...

Dot lay next to Wakko on the bed, his head resting on her shoulder. He had fallen asleep not long after their conversation. She was just relieved he was getting some rest. She was really worried about him. She placed a hand on his forehead and was stunned at how warm he was. His whole body was emitting heat from fever. She could see a slight redness in his cheeks and his chest moving up and down with every shaky breath he took. She frowned when he whimpered in his sleep.

_He doesn't deserve this. He's already been through enough._

She saw his body become tense, but then relax again. He grinned a small grin as he slept and his breaths became a little more even. Not much, but it was better than nothing.

Dot studied him as he slept. He looked a lot like Yakko without his hat, except his head was more rounded and he had a little bit of hair sticking up from the top. It was weird seeing him without his hat, like a big part of him was missing. She sighed and rubbed his arm gently, but pulled away when she saw him wince.

_That was weird._

Dot shrugged.

She heard the doorknob turning on the other side and her heart stopped. She wasn't supposed to be in the room. Yakko had told her earlier to leave Wakko alone and let him rest.

_I'm so dead._

Dot thought about it.

_It was worth it. It was worth it to talk to Wakko. Besides, we just got him back, does Yakko seriously think I'm just gonna sit back and not talk to him? I'm sure I can get out of whatever punishment he has planned for me. I'll just use my big eyes. He can't stay angry at me when my big eyes are on._

Yakko opened the door and Dot looked up at him innocently. He didn't look mad at all though.

Yakko just sighed and smiled at her.

"I knew I couldn't keep you out," he said.

She giggled quietly, as to not wake her sleeping brother.

"I just wanted to talk to him," she whispered. "You know, ask him normal questions, not questions about the last time he peed."

Yakko's face turned red, but then he relaxed again.

"Well sister sibling, it's crucial to know things like that when-"

"Save it nurse Yakko, I don't want to hear it. I understand you're just worried."

Yakko motioned her out and she reluctantly left Wakko's side, carefully moving his head from her shoulder to the pillow.

"He'll be ok, you know," Yakko reassured her.

She looked back to the room.

"I hope so."

_**The next morning...**_

"Ow..." Wakko moaned as he woke.

He had tried to stretch out his arms, as he does every morning, but found it extremely painful. He gritted his teeth as he moved one of his arms onto his lap. He needed to see why they hurt so bad. Yesterday they were bothering him, but he could still ignore it, now though, it was unbearable. He kept himself from crying out as he moved his right arm to his left, pulling up his left sleeve. He always wore long sleeves. Of course he didn't always where a turtleneck, that was just on his show, but he did like it. Now he was reconsidering it. He looked down at his left arm and gasped at what he saw. He was suddenly flooded with emotions, mostly along the lines of confused and frightened. There were strange white blotches all over his arm, like some of the ink had been drained from him.

_What's going on? What's happening to me?_

Wakko heard a knock at his door and frantically pulled down his sleeve. He pretended to be asleep when his door opened. He could tell it was Yakko by the sound of the steps. Yakko was tall, so he took bigger steps than him and Dot. He could feel Yakko's eyes on him and he did the best he could to act asleep. He really hoped Yakko was buying it. He didn't want to have to lie to his brother about something being wrong, because he knew he wouldn't be able to. Wakko became relieved when he heard Yakko leave the room and close the door. He waited a few minutes and let out a breath. He looked up. No Yakko in sight.

_I can't tell him. _

Wakko knew if he told him, Yakko would flip his lid. He didn't want to put Yakko and Dot through all that trouble. He would hide it. Yeah, he could do that. He'd hide it until it went away.

_It __**will **__go away. It has to._

Wakko lost his train of thought when his stomach rumbled. He hadn't been eating much, and he was Wakko Warner! It was only natural that he'd be hungry. As much as he hated doing it, he forced himself out of bed, being careful not to move his arms much. He stood up and began to see the room spin. He steadied himself on the edge of his bed. His head began to pound as he staggered out of his room and into the kitchen. He could've just called Yakko to get him some food, but he was tired of laying around in his room.

"Wakko? What are you doing out of your room?" asked Yakko, hurrying over to his staggering brother.

"I-I'm hungry," he said, nearly falling to the floor.

Yakko frantically reached for Wakko's arms to pull him up, but when he grabbed them, Wakko's yelped in pain. Yakko instead grabbed Wakko underneath his arms, confused by Wakko's scream, but still focused on getting his brother into the chair.

"Wakk? You alright?" he asked, reaching for Wakko's arms so he could see what's wrong.

"I-I'm fine!" Wakko yelled while quickly pulling his arms away, which startled Yakko.

"Wakko? What's wrong with your arms?" he asked, half worried and half suspicious.

"Nothing! I-I mean, nothing..."

Yakko continued to eye him suspiciously.

"If it's nothing, then let me see."

"No."

_He's hiding something._

"Why not? I just want to see, and if it's nothing then it shouldn't be a big deal, right?"

Wakko shuffled his feet nervously.

"Um... well, I... um..."

"Come on Wakko. You're worrying me. Just let me see." Yakko took a step towards him.

Wakko jumped up from the chair and staggered backwards a little as he became very dizzy. He grasped the side of the table to catch himself.

"Wakko, just let me-"

But Wakko didn't hear anymore. His eyes fluttered shut and his legs gave out from beneath him.

Everything went black.

**Wow. Sorry the update took so long. I'll try to be quicker with the next one. See ya next chapter!**


	8. Chapter 7 The Promise

**Hi everyone! Thanks again for the reviews and I really hope you're enjoying the story. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Animaniacs or any of the characters. No profit was made off this story.**

Chapter 7: The promise

Yakko, anxious for news about his brother, sat impatiently in the waiting room. He just hoped Wakko was awake. After he had passed out in the kitchen, Yakko had tried everything to wake him up, until Dot walked in and saw what was going on. Apparently her head was more clear than his because she immediately suggested taking him to the hospital.

Luckily the hospital they lived by had a floor for toons. Of course, Yakko was only twelve and too young to drive. He had sprinted to the phone and called the first adult he could think of. Scratchy. To his horror, Scratchy was in another state talking to different school's about psychiatry. Yakko had nearly dropped the phone. He really didn't want Plotz to take him. He could already hear the rant. Luckily, Helen, or Hello Nurse on their show, was available. Any other time Yakko would've greeted her with his famous "Helloooo Nurse!" but he was in a serious situation. Besides, he wouldn't say that line if Wakko couldn't say it, and Wakko couldn't really say anything right now.

The toon floor wasn't very busy. Toons usually never got sick, and they could usually prevent themselves from being hurt. The only other toons that were on that floor were a couple of cat toons, one of them just learning toon powers who broke their arm in the process. It reminded Yakko of when he was learning toon powers and broke his leg. That was the only other time he had to step foot in a hospital. But when a very sick young toon star comes through the door, you can imagine the look on everyone's face. Luckily, the people working on the toon floor weren't there just because they wanted an easy job, no, they were prepared. They had immediately taken Wakko to the ER.

"Yakko?"

Yakko was pulled from his thoughts by a soothing voice.

"Sorry, I spaced out," Yakko mumbled.

Helen smile warily at him.

"Don't worry yourself to much now," she said, one hand on his shoulder.

"It's impossible not to worry. I mean, what could be wrong? It all came out of nowhere," he said quietly, as to not wake Dot who was asleep in his lap.

"I don't know, but I'm sure he'll pull through. He is Wakko after all," she reassured him.

Yakko nodded, but wasn't convinced. They had been there two hours already and still didn't have any news on Wakko.

Yakko looked down when he felt Dot turn on his lap. She opened her eyes halfway and looked up at him.

"How long have we been here?" she asked tiredly.

"About two hours," Yakko said.

Dot sighed and climbed off Yakko's lap into the seat next to him.

"This stinks," she mumbled.

Yakko nodded.

"I know, but don't worry sister sibling, I'm sure he'll be ok. This will all pass and we'll be laughing about it before you know it. Well, not laughing, but- you know what I mean."

Dot raised an eyebrow at him.

"Wow Yakko, your just full of comforting words."

Yakko shrugged.

"Hey, I'm tired, so take what you get."

Yakko, Dot, and Helen continued to talk to pass the time. To Yakko, minutes seemed like hours, and he was losing his patience. Yakko almost jumped in the air when he saw the doctor approaching them. He was a human doctor, which kind of confused Yakko since this was the toon floor of the hospital, but he'd take it. For now.

"You can all go see him now. He's awake, but I warn you to be careful. He's in a very fragile state att the moment. You may sit with him on the bed, but please don't be too physical."

Yakko nodded, trying to hide the pain growing inside of him. Wakko wasn't nearly that bad this morning. It didn't make sense. Yakko peered down at his younger sister and saw in her eyes the same fear he was experiencing. He put a hand on her shoulder and smiled reassuringly at her.

"Do you want me to wait out here?" Helen asked.

Yakko shook his head.

"I know if I was in Wakko's position, I wouldn't mind seeing you right now," Yakko said, and winked at her.

Helen rolled her eyes, but smiled at him as they followed the doctor to Wakko's room.

Yakko thanked the doctor and stepped in the room. When he saw Wakko, he wanted to run up to him and embrace him in a hug, but he could tell by how Wakko looked right now that it would be a bad idea.

Wakko was trembling slightly and his face was flushed. His breathing was labored and he was struggling to keep his eyes open. He looked limp and weaker than he was a day ago. Yakko smiled sadly at him. Wakko attempted to smile back, but with little success. He looked so helpless and small on that giant bed. A sickly puppy-like child. Yakko hated it.

"Hi Wakk," Yakko whispered as he sat down next to his brother on the bed.

"Hi," he managed to say, but he was struggling. It seemed when he talked it only wore him out more.

"Wakko!" Dot cried, and ran to his side.

Wakko held out his arms and hugged her. She didn't want to hurt him, but she had to except the hug. She carefully wrapped her arms around him. She reluctantly let go and sat down on the other side. Wakko looked back and forth between them both, then turned to Yakko.

"I'm scared," he whimpered.

Yakko gently ran a hand through his hair.

"I know, but we'll get through this together. Just think of all the fun we'll have when you get better."

"If I get better."

Yakko shook his head.

"No ifs, only whens, got it?"

Wakko slowly nodded. He smiled weakly when he saw Helen. She smiled back at him. Yakko could tell it made Wakko happy that she was there. He was glad she was willing to help them. Wakko closed his eyes and rested his head on Yakko's shoulder. That's when Yakko noticed something.

Small white blotches covered Wakko's arms and part of his head. Yakko remembered how Wakko yelped when he was pulling him up by the arms earlier.

_That was why. But what is it? _

As frightened as Yakko was, he knew he had to be strong for both Wakko and Dot. He was the older brother, and he wasn't going to lose himself.

_**The next day...**_

"Do you like it? I know it's not that great, but really I tried," Skippy said, turning the small red wooden car around in his hands so Wakko could see it all.

Wakko smiled.

"I like it. Thanks."

Skippy smiled brightly and set the car down on the small table next to the bed. The number of toys, gifts, and get well cards had increased dramatically in one night, and they were running out of room on the table. Yakko decided that all the fan gifts were to be sent to the tower. All the get well gifts from their co-stars and friends could be in the room.

All their co-stars had been visiting, and Yakko was thankful that they cared. Slappy had made Wakko a new mallet that had made his day. Yakko could tell he couldn't wait to use it. And Skippy made Wakko the car.

Slappy motioned Skippy towards the door.

"Hope you get better Wakko. Come on Skippy, let's go terrorize the kitchen staff."

"Alright!" cheered Skippy as he followed his aunt out the door.

Wakko sighed shakily and leaned back against his pillow. Dot crawled over closer to him. She didn't touch him, knowing that his whole body was in pain and touch only made the pain unbearable. She wanted to be by him though. Yakko did too. They were Warners, and Warners stuck together. They only had each other after all.

Yakko peered over at all the gifts on the table.

"Wow Wakk, looks like your famous for more than your show," Yakko said, trying to lighten Wakko's mood.

Wakko scowled at the comment.

"I don't want to be famous for dying," Wakko mumbled.

Dot hit the table next to the bed, startling her older brothers.

"No! You are not dying! You're going to be ok!"

Wakko and Yakko stared at her, dumbfounded. There had been times when she'd snapped at them, but never out of the blue like that. She had been relatively quiet up to that point. Wakko set his gaze upon the covers.

"I-I'm sorry," he muttered. "You're right."

Her eyes went from frustrated to depressed. She forced a reassuring smile.

"It's ok. When you get better, you can make it up to me by going with me to get ice cream."

Wakko grinned at the thought.

"You will get better," said Dot confidently. "You will."

_**Late that night...**_

Yakko was awakened in the middle of the night by the agonizingly painful screams coming from his younger brother.

"Wakko!"

Dot had woken up as well, and Yakko could see tears glistening in her eyes. Wakko screamed more, his eyes open indicating he was awake and not just having a nightmare.

"M-Make it stop! It hurts Yakko! Dot!"

Dot ran towards him, but Yakko held her back.

"No Dot!"

Five doctors rushed into the room. Two of them quickly pushed Yakko and Dot out.

"You kids need to wait out here for a while, ok?"

But the doctor didn't let them answer as he rushed back into the room. Yakko could hear his little brother calling for them, and as much as he wanted to rush to Wakko's side and embrace him in a hug, he knew he couldn't.

Dot held back tears as she rushed for the door to Wakko's room. She began pounding on the door.

"No! He needs me! Let me in!"

Yakko ran to her and pulled her back. He embraced her in a tight hug.

"Sh. It's ok. It's ok."

He kept repeating the same words until the tension in her shoulders dropped and she calmed down.

He carried her to the waiting room, where they sat for what felt like days. In reality, it was only hours. One of the doctors that had run into Wakko's room, the one that pushed them out, came into the waiting room with a forlorn expression on his face. Dot swiftly jumped up from Yakko's lap and ran up to doctor.

"Is he ok?" she asked shakily.

The doctor's eyes fell upon the floor.

"We're doing everything we can to keep him alive, but we don't know what's wrong. He's holding on by a thread. There's- there's nothing more we can do."

Yakko stared at the doctor, trying to process what he had just heard. He didn't even notice his little sister break down sobbing on the floor. Yakko's head became fogged and his vision became blurry with warm tears. He didn't even notice. The hospital suddenly became very quiet, and Yakko felt like he was in another world. A world where everything was empty. Where everything was gone.

He was pulled from the grey world by the screaming of his sister.

"No! No he can't! He can't d-" she choked off the word. The word that she didn't want to hear.

Yakko walked up to her. He was the older brother. He was supposed to stay calm. He was supposed to be there for his siblings when they were depressed, but now he didn't even know if he could contain his own emotions anymore. No, he had to, for his sister.

"Dot, I know this is hard, but-"

"You don't understand!"

This caught Yakko off guard.

"What?"

"I made a promise! I can't break it!"

Yakko titled his head in confusion. He hadn't the slightest idea what she was talking about.

"Dot, I don't-"

"I- I promised him he'd never lose us again. If he... dies... that promise will be broken. I can't lose him." Her head dropped to her hands.

"I can't," she whispered.

Yakko almost lost control. He wanted to scream in anger, sadness, and hopelessness. He didn't though. He just stood there with his sobbing sister, not saying anything. Everything was silent.

Everything was lost.

**Well? Is anyone crying yet? It's ok if you're not. :) Sorry if this was cheesy. This chapter was mainly to show emotion. Anyways, see ya next chapter!**


	9. Chapter 8 It Finally Makes Sense

**Hey again everyone! Again, thanks for the reviews. Your encouraging words are what keeps me going on this story. I really appreciate it. I'm sorry I haven't updated in so long. :( I hope no one left this story. Well, we're here. The final chapter. Will Wakko live? Read to find out!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Animaniacs. No profit was made off this story. **

Chapter 8: It Finally Makes Sense

"Do you wanna hear a poem?" Dot asked Wakko quietly.

Wakko nodded slowly, his eyes still closed.

"Ok... let me think." Dot smiled when a poem came to mind. "I'm a little teapot short and stout, here is my handle, and here's a letter from my shrink! He says I'm getting better! Last week I thought I was a toaster oven!"

This made a small grin form on Wakko's face. Dot was overjoyed that she could make him happy. She just wished she could hug him. She frowned slightly. She looked over at Yakko who was watching them from a seat in the corner of the room. He smiled wearily at her.

Suddenly, the door to the room burst opened and a cranky looking toon doctor hurried in.

"Alright, you kids out," he told Yakko and Dot sternly as he shoved them out.

Yakko and Dot stood in the hallway, unaware of what was happening.

"I thought Wakko's doctor was a human doctor," said Dot, perplexed by what was happening.

Yakko put a gloved hand to his chin.

"Well, maybe this doctor, being a toon, knows more about toon diseases. He's probably here to help Wakko," Yakko said reassuringly.

Dot eyed the door, awaiting the man to come back out saying that her brother was alright, but she knew it wasn't that simple.

Wakko's human doctor ran pat the Two Warners in the hallway and stepped into Wakko's room, not even glancing at them.

_**Within the room...**_

Doctor T. Jack, an old looking toon man, examined Wakko, gently running his old fingers over the blotches covering Wakko's skin. Wakko flinched in his sleep whenever Jack made contact with his body.

Jack looked up to Wakko's human doctor, doctor Jamison.

"What are his other symptoms?" Jack asked in a serious tone.

"He's losing ink, which explains the blotches, but how? There's no open wounds on him, The ink is just... disappearing from his body. It doesn't make since. And he's not just losing ink from the outside, he's losing it deep down inside too. It's unlike anything I've ever worked with. He wasn't nearly in this bad of condition when he arrived. He's barely able to speak now. He's barely holding on and I don't know how to handle it."

Jamison sighed as Jack listened intently.

"Calm down Jamison, don't let your emotions get the best of you. You're a doctor and you need to be able to handle things like this."

Jamison nodded, excepting the toon man's wisdom.

"Is he, well, going to pass?" asked Jamison.

Jack was silent for several moments, deep in thought.

"He has at least a week left. Give me one night, and I'll see if I can find an answer."

Jamison nodded.

"What should I tell his siblings?"

"Well," started Jack, "It depends how they're handling it now."

"For kids, they've been very strong. They haven't left his side and they refuse to accept the fact that he's dying."

"Don't say anything then. You'll only crush their hope."

Jamison nodded once more and then exited the room, leaving Jack to his work. As he emerged from the door, he was stopped by the oldest Warner.

"Hey, what's going on?" Yakko asked.

"Well, Doctor Jack is going to take over now. He knows more about toons than I do, being a toon himself."

"Will he be able to help our brother?" Dot asked hopefully.

Jamison was silent for several moments, pondering on how to reply.

"Maybe."

Dot sighed, but excepted the answer... for now.

"Well kids, I wish you and your brother luck. I have to go tend to other patients now."

With that, Jamison left them standing there with hardly any if not any answers.

Yakko and Dot walked to the waiting room so they could sit down. Like yesterday, they're weren't many toons there. Just a little dog toon and a larger dog toon whom Yakko assumed was the smaller one's father. The young dog toon had tears falling through his brown fur. He was holding his right gloved hand with his left, whimpering but calming down as his father gently rubbed his back. Yakko listened as the father comforted his son, telling him everything was going to be ok He watched as the father hugged his son tightly, wiping the sadness away. Yakko envied them both. The boy who could receive hugs and the father who could give them. It made the longing for his brother even stronger.

But he couldn't do anything about it.

_**Late that night...**_

Jack stared at the dying little boy, so small and helpless on the hospital bed. He had an idea of what was wrong, but he couldn't believe it. It hadn't happened in years, and it had only happened one other time.

Jack looked down at his clipboard again, reading off the symptoms in his head.

_Extreme fatigue._

_Large white blotches that continue to increase in size._

_Extreme pain throughout body._

_Ink loss._

Yes, there was only one explanation, but could it be possible? And if it was, how? Jack continued to wonder, until he decided that he would have to get some answers. He headed towards the waiting room.

_**In the waiting room...**_

Both siblings jumped from their seats when they saw Dr. T. Jack coming towards them. They had been sitting in there all night without any information, and it was driving them crazy.

"Well, what's wrong wit him?" Yakko asked, anxious to get to the point.

Jack leaned and whispered as quietly as possible.

"Come with me."

Dot looked over to Yakko and he just shrugged.

"I only know what you know," he told her.

She sighed.

"I don't know anything."

"Exactly."

Jack lead them down a long, empty hallway until they reached a darkened room. He unlocked the door and flipped on the lamp. It left a dim light in the corner. Jack closed the door and locked it, which made Yakko feel uneasy. He suddenly felt like he was in a cliche horror movie and Dr. T Jack was about to pull an axe out from behind his back.

"Uhhhhh... What are you doing?" Yakko asked suspiciously.

Jack leaned in and spoke in a whisper, like if he spoke any louder someone would hear them.

"Has there been any recent deaths in the family?" asked Jack.

Yakko and Dot both exchanged confused looks.

"No," said Dot. "Why?"

Jack put a hand to his chin, deep in thought.

"Hm, well... has anything absolutely terrifying happened to him recently?"

Both siblings stared at the doctor, completely confused.

"Exqueeze me, not that I'm not enjoying this little trivia game, but why are you asking us all these questions?" asked Yakko.

Jack hesitated, then dropped his shoulders, finally giving in.

"I think I know what's wrong with your brother."

The siblings' eyes lit up with a newfound hope.

"What? Is he gonna be ok? Is he gonna live? Is-"

Yakko covered Dot's mouth before she could ask anymore questions.

"You were saying doctor?" Yakko asked over Dot's muffled protests.

"Well... It's very complicated. What your brother has, it's only happened once before, and that was many, many years ago."

Yakko's heart sank. Whatever it was sounded extremely serious.

"W-what is it?" he asked, his voice shaky.

"He's losing color."

"What?" the siblings asked in unison.

"The disease your brother has, it's connected to the mind. When a toon experiences his or her worst fear a large number of times, it can cause mental shock. That shock has a strange reaction on a toon's mind and slowly shuts down their body, thus stopping the flow of ink. Ink flows throughout all toons, even born ones, and that flowing of ink is what keeps us alive. Your brother, somehow, went through a mental shock and now his flow of ink has slowed dramatically. A toon's ink has to continuously flow or it will quickly dry up and wither away, along with the toons life."

Yakko and Dot stared at the man, mouths hanging wide open. Dot's face suddenly became contorted with anger.

"That's ridiculous! Are you saying that if a spider lands in front of Yakko six hundred times his ink is gonna wither away and he'll just fall over and die? That's just stupid!"

Yakko's face reddened slightly at the mention of his fear.

"Well," started Jack, "It's not that simple."

"Then explain it," demanded Yakko, his previous embarrassment gone.

Just then, Dr. Jack ran over to the desk sitting in the corner of the room and grabbed a post-it note and a pen. He jotted down something quickly and handed the paper to Yakko.

"Here. The man that lives here knows much more about this than me."

Yakko looked down at the address in his hand, then looked back up to the doctor, still half confused.

"Who is this?

Yakko held the paper up as he asked, demanding to know. Jack peered around his shoulder, as if to make sure no one was listening.

"He's a creator."

The siblings' eyes widened.

"A-a creator?" Dot said, eyes still wide with a newfound excitement.

Neither one of them had ever met a creator before. It was exciting to think they were about to meet one of the humans that actually created toons.

"Tell me doc, does this creator know how to cure our brother?"

"Well, if anyone knows how to cure your brother, it's that man. He knows more than us anyways."

"Thanks doc," Yakko said, looking down at the paper as if it was a priceless gem.

"Alright. Now you have some answers. You may go see your brother if you wish, but I'd make the visit quick."

Yakko nodded in understanding. Dot still didn't seem convinced.

_**In the room...**_

Dot sat in the chair in the corner of the room, watching her brothers. She still wasn't convinced about the whole fear thing.

_It just doesn't make sense._

She watched Yakko talk to her unconscious dying brother in a soothing tone, as if everything was going to be ok.

_Yakko is the best big brother ever, and he can almost always make me feel better, but this time, nothing takes away the pain. _

Dot held back tears as she watched Yakko sing to Wakko. He was softly singing his universe song, a song that he would sing whenever they felt down. She didn't know why, but the song calmed her and Wakko.

_I hope this creator knows what to do, because if Wakko dies, I might just go down with him._

...

Yakko completed his song. Wakko hadn't moved. Yakko frowned. He didn't want to leave his brother's side, but he had to go find this creator. He was waiting for Slappy to get to the hospital to pick him up. He would've called Helen, but he was in a rough situation and needed to get to this creator guy fast. If anyone is fast behind the wheel, it's Slappy. He did call Helen to watch after Wakko while he was gone though.

He just hoped this creator guy knew what he was dealing with. Yakko wanted to do something, anything to help his brother, and this was the best he could do. Going to this guy and asking for help.

Yakko was pulled from his thoughts when he heard a groan next to him. Wakko was awake! Well, kind of.

Yakko looked to his brother hopefully, waiting for Wakko to speak.

"Y-Yakko..."

Yakko smiled down at him.

"Hiya Wakk. How ya doin'?"

Wakko didn't respond for several minutes.

"Yakko?" Wakko finally said.

"Yeah Wakko?"

Wakko closed his eyes and smiled.

"I'm not scared anymore."

Wakko quickly fell back into a deep sleep that Yakko was afraid he'd never wake up from.

Yakko clenched his fists suddenly angry. His brother shouldn't have to say that. His brother shouldn't have to say that he's ready to face death. His little brother shouldn't be dying!

Yakko stood up and walked towards the door.

"Where're you going?" asked Dot, concerned.

"To save our brother."

"I'm coming too!" she said, determination written in her eyes.

Yakko nodded and sent her a smile.

"Wait," she said, "Who's going to stay here with Wakko?

"Helen's driving over now. Let's go. I wanna find this guy as quick as possible."

"As long as Slappy's behind the wheel, we'll get there pretty quick."

Yakko opened the door and left the room, Dot following behind.

"I hope so."

_**On the road...**_

"Dang cops always riding my tail!"

Slappy pushed down harder on the gas, sirens wailing behind her.

"Hey Skippy, are car rides always this fun for you?" asked Dot.

"Everyday but Saturday."

"Should I ask?" said Yakko, one eyebrow raised.

"You don't wanna know," said Skippy.

Yakko and Dot exchanged glances and shrugged their shoulders. Slappy grumbled under her breath when the police cars didn't go away.

"Alright! Alright! Guess I'm gonna have to do this the painful way."

"Painful for the police," Yakko whispered.

Slappy pulled over and waited for the police man to get out of his car.

"Is this gonna take long?" Dot complained.

Skippy leaned over to whisper in her ear.

"Give her thirty seconds."

Dot sighed.

"Ok. I Guess I could use a laugh anyways."

Slappy rolled down the window put her arm on the edge. The police man strolled up to her, a scowl on his face.

"Good morning officer," she greeted him politely.

"Miss, are you aware that your were driving thirty miles over the speed limit?"

"Yes. Are you aware that you look great in that uniform?"

The man blushed.

"Why, thank you! I just got it cleaned."

He shook his head at himself, realizing what he just said, and replaced his smile with his previous scowl.

"Ma'am, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to give you a ticket."

"And I'm afraid I'll have to give you this bouquet for being such a great police officer," she said, smiling."

"Oh, why, thank you! No one's ever given me flowers before."

The man took them gratefully, not realizing the dynamite hidden within the wrapping.

Yakko, Dot, and Skippy laughed as the man was blown into the air.

"Where'd you send him, Mars?" Yakko asked, suppressing more laughter.

"Nah, Mars is getting too crowded, so I sent him to Uranus."

Yakko blew a kiss out to no one in particular.

"G'night everybody!"

Slappy continues to zoom passed every car in sight, getting few glares, some fist shakes, many swear words, and a lot of all three. Finally, they arrived in a small town, the town of the creator they were supposed to meet. Small white houses lined the streets, and each one was relatively new, except one. You could tell it was old, but you could also tell it was well kept by the owner.

"Well, this is the place," Slappy said, looking back at the two siblings.

Yakko turned to Dot.

"You ready?"

She nodded, not pulling her gaze away from the house, the house holding the man that could save their brother.

_**At the hospital...**_

Helen sat in the room, watching the small Warner boys labored breathing and nearly colorless face.

She frowned at the sight.

_He doesn't deserve this. His siblings don't deserve this. They're just kids. _

Helen thought about how they normally acted. Crazy, yet cute children running around the lot, jumping in people's arms and having a good time. Plotz would always say he hated them, and Scratchy would say they were "Coo Coo in the head," but Helen saw something different. She saw kids living life to the fullest. Sure, she thought they were crazy and at times really annoying, but aren't all kids? These kids were just really good at it. Seeing Wakko dying and his siblings in a depressed state was just out of place and horrible. She definitely preferred the crazy Warners over the sad or sick Warners.

She was pulled by her thoughts by the sound of Wakko's heart monitor's rapid beeping. Panicked, she frantically looked around the room, tears forcing their way through her eyes. She found the emergency button and stumbled over to it. She pressed it and then quickly ran to Wakko's side, her hands trembling. She no longer saw his chest moving up and down.

"No! Please someone! Help!" she screamed.

Several doctors and nurses came in, prepared and getting straight to work. Helen was pushed out of the room and left standing in the hallway. She silently prayed, even though she wasn't religious. She was a toon after all, and toons were made by man, not any type of God, but she felt like she had to do something. And praying was all she could think of. She continued to pray to no one, just hoping that someone was listening.

_**At the house of the creator...**_

Yakko took a deep breath in and knocked on the door.

_Please be home._

They stood there several minutes, and still no one answered.

Yakko was about to walk away, crushed, when the door opened. An old man, completely bald and wrinkled, yet at the same time fit, came to the door. He smiled a friendly smile when he saw the toons at the door.

"Good evening. I apologize that it took me so long to answer the door. I'm getting old." the man laughed a little. "So, what can I do for you two toons today?"

"Well, we have some questions to ask you, sir," said Dot.

"Please, call me Tim."

He held out his hand and both sibs shook it.

"Now, what do you want to ask me."

Yakko looked around to make sure no one was around. He didn't know why, but Dr. T Jack was doing that at the hospital, so he felt like he had to do it too. Yakko made sure to speak quietly, but loud enough for the old man's ears.

"Well, our brother in dying in the hospital," said Yakko, frowning.

"I'm so sorry. What's wrong with him?"

"He's losing color. Our doctor told us that if anyone could help, it would be you."

The man's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates.

"Come in," he said, his cheery mood replaced with a serious one. Yakko and dot stepped in the house and closed the door.

"Now, tell me why you're here," he said in a kind yet firm voice.

"We don't know how to save our brother. He losing all his ink and we really don't understand it. All we know is that something apparently scared it all out of him. It's hard to explain..."

Tim put his hand up, signaling Yakko to stop.

"You don't need to explain anymore."

Dot and Yakko exchanged worried glances.

"What's wrong with him? I mean, the doctor told us, but not really a lot. Just that when toons get really scared something happens with their mind. I don't really remember," said Dot, trying to explain it with little success.

The withered man sat down and put a hand on his chin.

"A long time ago, something happened."

Yakko wanted to stop the man from telling a lengthy story, but at the same time, he wanted to know how this story was going to link to his brother's illness.

"What happened?" Dot asked, curious.

Tim smiled, but Yakko could see pain in his eyes, the type of pain from years ago hidden in the back of your mind.

"I was just starting out as a creator. I had just finished college and moved into LA. Well, instead of waiting, I wanted to get right to work."

"On making toons?" Yakko asked.

"Yes, but my impatient actions would come at a price. You see, I had started creating a large family called the Bluebird Buddies. What I should've done was keep studying and then start out small, but no, I had to start big."

"What happened then? Why was it bad that you made such a big family?"

The man looked up at her solemnly.

"Defects."

"Defects? They turned out wrong?" Yakko asked.

"Let me explain. My family consisted of ten bluebirds, Ronny and Kathy being the parents. The youngest was Bobby. Only Ronny and Kathy had defects though."

"Then... what happened to them?" asked Dot, confused.

"When Bobby turned eight, Ronny and Kathy's defects began to show. They started falling apart, and Bobby watched in horror as his parents died."

"That's horrible," dot said, her hands to her mouth.

"Yes, but Bobby still had the other members of his family, until it happened."

"He lost his whole family? How?" Dot asked.

"Well, this took place a long time ago, when toons were new to the world. Of course, there were some people who didn't like the idea of a strange new species living among them."

"Toon haters," Yakko said. Tim nodded.

"They came to my apartment and killed what was left of Bobby's family. Bobby was a very small toon, so he found a place to hide, but his family died right before his eyes."

"How did they kill his family? I drawn toons were indestructible," Yakko pointed out.

"DIP."

Dot's eyes widened.

"How did they get access to DIP?"

The man sighed and shrugged his bony shoulders.

"There's so many different theories and rumors. Some say they broke in to a chemical factory and stole it. Some say the government provided it. Me, I choose not to look into it."

"Oh," muttered Dot."

"What happened to Bobby?" asked Yakko, even though he already had a pretty good idea.

"He went through what your brother's going through right now. During the time he was ill, I started working on a cure, but by the time I finished it, it was too late."

Yakko could see Dot's eyes glistening with tears, and he was going to comfort her, until he realized something.

"Wait, did you say you made a cure?"

"Yes, I did."

Yakko's eyes lit up and he smiled. His smile faded though.

"How much of this cure do you have?"

"I have one bottle, just enough for one toon."

Yakko thought about this for a moment.

_What if he doesn't want to give it up? Maybe he could just make more? No, he would've done that already. _

Yakko was pulled from his thoughts by Dot's sudden outburst.

"Of course! Of course it all makes sense now!" she cried. She grabbed Yakko's shoulders and started shaking them, startling the oldest Warner.

"Dot, what is it?"

"Tamson!"

Yakko's mouth fell wide open.

"What about him?"

"He did this to Wakko!"

Yakko stared into her fear filled eyes.

"How do you know?"

Dot let go and got a guilty look on her face.

"When you went shopping that one day, not long after we got Wakko back, he told me what Tamson did to him."

"What did he do?" Yakko asked, beginning to show anger.

"He gave Wakko nightmares, but not ordinary nightmares. Wakko said they were of us dying, over and over again. He kept losing us Yakko. Just like Bobby kept losing his family."

Yakko's eyes filled with fury, and he longed for revenge, but he shook it off. Tamson was serving time in jail, so there was nothing he could do. Instead, he would go save his brother, or try to, but he needed the cure for that.

"Tim, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Yakko and this is Dot. Yay! Now we're all best friends! And best friends lend each other stuff so... can we have your cure?"

The man stared at him, dumbfounded, then started to laugh. Yakko looked at him, confused.

"Of course you can have it! I don't need it anymore. My creator days are over. Besides, your brother needs it."

Yakko wanted to hug the man he was so happy, but he resisted for reputation reasons. Dot, on the other hand, gladly wrapped her arms around the man.

"Thank you! Thank you! You just saved our brother!" she cried, but this time they were tears of joy and hope.

Yakko and Dot ran out as quickly as possible and hopped in the car without another word. The whole trip back was quiet, until they finally arrived. Yakko sprinted to the elevator, Dot at his side, and they arrived at the toon floor. Yakko's heart sank when he saw Helen sitting in the waiting room, her head in her hands.

She looked up to them, her eyes bloodshot with tears.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered.

Yakko's legs began to shake and his stomach was in his throat.

"No. No!"

Yakko ran to his brother's room where his saw Wakko, laying lifeless on the bed. Doctor Jamison was there with a forlorn expression.

"I'm sorry kids."

Dot ran to Wakko's side and began shaking his shoulders.

"Wakko! Wake up! You idiot wake up!" Her head fell on Wakko's motionless chest. "Wake up."

Yakko got on the bed and poured the cure down Wakko's throat, hoping to God that it wasn't too late. Yakko finished and waited for Wakko to move. Nothing. No signs of life.

_No... _

Yakko thought back to when he saw Tamson giving that speech on T.V. Then he thought back to Buster's kidnaping.

_This is my fault. _

He thought about Wakko going out to get those pancakes, totally unaware he was going to get taken to a horrifying science lab.

_I didn't keep him safe. The minute Buster got kidnaped, I should've been more protective. I should've stayed with them at all times. Now look what I've done. _

Yakko felt empty.

_This is my fault. I let this happen._

Yakko silently sobbed as the same thought kept running through his mind. The thought that he could've prevented this from happening, but he didn't. Now he was going to lose one of the things he loved most.

_If I would've payed attention, if I would've been the older brother that I was supposed to be..._

Yakko pulled his younger sibling closer to him on the hospital bed. He had thought that everything was going to be ok. He had thought that things would work out like they always do. He and his siblings were always able to get out of a jam relatively easily, but not this time. Yakko tightly pulled his eyes shut as he felt more warm tears dampen his fur.

_Now it's too late._

The siblings just lay there feeling empty. Yakko peered into his sister's red-rimmed eyes and saw pure hopelessness in them, something he'd never seen in his sister's eyes before. He had a feeling that his eyes showed the same.

Yakko ran a hand through his brother's now inkless hair.

_Why did this happen?_

Yakko let his eyes shut as memories flooded his mind. Him and Wakko bothering Helen on set. All of them running around the lot without a care in the world. The memories only made it hurt worse.

Yakko felt a sudden movement from next to him. He looked over to Dot, but she hadn't moved.

Yakko frowned, thinking it was his imagination, but then he saw it. Wakko's hand shift from one position to another. It was barely any movement, but it was something.

_He's alive! _

Yakko was grinning from ear to ear now at the thought that his brother was alive. He heard a groan come out of the completely colorless boy.

"Dot! Dot look!" he said excitedly, but she had heard the groan and was already looking.

"He's alive!" She cheered.

Yakko gently shook his brother's shoulders.

"Wakko! Wakko can you hear me?"

"Yakko?"

Yakko embraced his brother in the tightest hug he could. He quickly let go, hoping that his brother's body wasn't fragile anymore. Yakko almost did cartwheels when he saw Wakko's fur regaining color.

"Where are we?" he asked, tongue hanging out of his mouth. "Why are you guys crying?"

Dot was the next to embrace him, holding on like her life depended on it.

"Never leave me again Wakko!"

He tilted his head.

"Where did I go?"

Dot looked up at him, her eyes wet with tears of joy.

"You don't remember?"

He put a hand to his chin.

"Hm, I remember being at home and Yakko yelling at me, then everything went black."

Yakko was stunned. Wakko's didn't remember anything about being in the hospital, not the toy car, not the poem, not his song. He didn't care. All he cared about was that Wakko was alive. His little brother was alive.

"Why am I in a hospital?"

"It's a long story," Dot said, and then she laughed shakily, still a little freaked out by her brother dying and coming back so suddenly.

"Oh. Hey Yakko?"

"Yeah Wakk?"

"I'm hungry. Can we go home?"

Yakko smiled at him and pulled him into another hug.

"How about pizza?"

Wakko smiled his signature goofy smile.

The smile Yakko loved and wouldn't lose for a long time.

**THE END**

**Well, that's the whole story! Come on, you guys didn't really think I'd kill off my favorite Animaniacs character, did you? I hope you liked it! I'm so, so sorry that the update took so long. I was really busy with a number of things. Anyways, please review! By the way, I have an idea for another story that I may or may not write, but I probably will. It won't be all dramatic like this though. Adios!**


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